There are a number of sketches which cover almost all the spaces in the gallery - this would not be an uncommon scene which we find in art exhibitions. Nevertheless, the film work which shows the images of “Über performative skizzen” (performative installation, sketch, 2009), held in Berlin this year, would show viewers another aspect of the sketches displayed around them. What we find in the film is a performative sketch in which sketches on the wall start to move and come to create installations of various shapes in a space. The sketches give us a dynamic impression across (Über) space boundaries.

     The movements of sketches are expressed using a technique called “stop motion animation”, with which pictures are taken synchronized with movements of subjects and a film is created by connecting these thousands of images. Neither these kinds of animations nor film works are unusual creating styles in the field of modern art. Nonetheless, Taguchi’s film creation is completely different to existing stop motion animations in that, in his film work, it is not the images which are depicted in the sketches, but the sketches themselves which are displayed in the venue move. Therefore, we find a vast number of materials - sketches - which are shown in the gallery space are transformed into installations of varying form, such as those in the shape of houses or triangles, and then they start to move connecting with each other. To be precise, Taguchi’s film creation presents an incredible world.

     In the exhibition, we can enjoy another of his film works named “Ordnung” (2008), which was also made using images of performative installation in which pieces of furniture, fixtures and other things which are found in the gallery move. This film was also created utilizing the technique of stop motion animation to make various kinds of things move uniquely and geometrically. The dynamic image of this film make us find so much pleasure in viewing images that we may forget that this film creation was made using a good deal of time and effort. What Taguchi intends to show us through this film is not such a simple thing that presents the process of creating the stereoscopic work utilizing the arrangement and movement of furniture and fixtures. The work represents a record of a certain period of time and the “fact” that we are in the venue where people enter, exit, talk with each other, or eat something. The dynamic movements of sketches which we find in the “Über performative skizzen” can also be considered as a record of the time and period during which the sketches have been displayed. At the moment when each still photograph which was taken separately starts to move and connect with each other, you can find the sketches and other things re-creating a new spatiotemporal world.

      Nevertheless, Taguchi does not aim at creating a narrative world - stop motion animation - which was made using sketches, pieces of furniture and fixtures. Such a world exists only in images. Rather, I would like to call his works something like “stop motion documentaries” in which he recorded the process of completing his creations in a space. This is because he focuses on placing materials and sketches in a space while creating a film work.

     For this exhibition, it is said that Taguchi sends sketches or some other creations via FAX every day to be added to the exhibits. Therefore, his works displayed in this exhibition would show their varying aspects from day to day. All the exhibits are composed of uncertain and visual factors. The exhibition itself can be called a grand stop motion animation. Creating film works by accumulating the process of completing them while the works themselves exist individually to be shown in one “exhibition” - Taguchi’s creations collect and integrate us, the viewers, into the time axis of images across (Über), not only the boundary of space, but also that of time.
(Translated by Nozomi Nakayama)